


Every Subject's Soul is his Own

by Sky_King



Series: Rend the Heavens Asunder [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst, Character Analysis, Despair, Final Battle, Final Getsuga Tenshou, Gen, Sacrifice, Shinigami/Zanpakutou Bond, Souls, Zanpakutou, let's pretend the last arc didn't happen, why Ichigo is a shitty wielder, zanpakuto as main characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 12:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15461868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_King/pseuds/Sky_King
Summary: "Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own." W. Shakespeare.A shift in perspective of the moment in which Ichigo learned Final Getsuga Tenshou. We see up close how Zangetsu and his hollow accepted it, after they taught the technique to their King. They were not only Ichigo's soul, they were also themselves.





	Every Subject's Soul is his Own

" _For surely a king is first a man. And so it must follow that a king does as all men do: the best he can."_

―  _Cameron Dokey, The Storyteller's Daughter_

Everything was a shade paler, every single atom vibrating with a fervent desire.

Everything inside Ichigo’s soulscape was anxious and unnerved.

The hollow inside of Ichigo took a look at their surroundings and sighed sadly.

He didn't know what to do.

By his side, the ever steadfast Zangetsu couldn’t seem to be able to stop crying in his younger-looking, bankai form. He had been crying ever since Ichigo first entered their inner world, wanting to learn the thrice damned Final Getsuga Tenshou. Ever since Ichigo had come looking for a way to destroy them all forever. He grimaced to the stormy clouds of the sideways sky, not that much concerned that he was about to disappear as well.

Heck, Zangetsu wasn't even crying about that either. The idiot was crying for Ichigo who'd be left alone. He was crying because he had wanted to protect Ichigo from this technique and failed. He was crying because they all would part ways without hope of being together again. He was crying because they were the youngest out of all Soul Society, yet they were the ones to lose it all. They both had felt a thrumming of apologetic solace coming from Engetsu that was tuned out by the both of them. They needed no sympathy. They would not accept apologies from their indirect executioner.

The hollow approached the young man, draping an arm around thinner shoulders. Zangetsu stiffened, but didn't move, his arm still raised to cover his eyes. "Hey," he said, yet the other didn't answer.

"Why are ya' covering yer eyes? Just me and you in here and we're kinda the same spirit." He said in a soft tone, one never heard by anyone but Zangetsu. Said man gathered the energy lift his arm briefly to glare at him, eyes still teeming with tears. "Don't look at me like that, why don't we marvel at the fucked-up interior of our King for as long as we can, instead?"

"It's not fucked-up." Was all the reply he got, but the hollow grinned at seeing the other doing as suggested.

"It's goddamned side-ways, how else would ya' describe it?" He jokingly asked, even as the buildings and the sky started to glow. Starting to fade.

His nonexistent heart jumped in his chest, a mirror of Ichigo’s state of being, almost as if he –they– were scared.

 Slowly but surely, his energy was requested, demanded and he could feel his and Zangetsu's power being drawn. Being drained. "Heh, it has begun."

"Yes." The black-haired man's shoulders trembled violently. The hollow spirit had to wonder at how, for once, it was him consoling Zangetsu and not the other way around. It was weird, unnatural even, seeing Zangetsu weak like this, when he was always the one to encourage the both of them —him and their King—, to reassure them and to calm them down. "And this place is majestic in its own way. It's beautiful."

"Damn, you're right." The white Ichigo said, and at the far end they could see that things had started to fade into nonexistance. Zangetsu wept. The hollow knew that out of the two of them, it was him who had it worse, mainly because while he had been a part of Zangetsu that had been forcefully separated, gaining another consciousness; Zangetsu had been  _born_ when ichigo was born. He had lived here, not as a zanpakuto but merely as a part of Ichigo. And dear, stupid Ichigo was going to make everyone disappear.

"KING!" He bellowed at the air, gripping Zangetsu closer to him. "YA' DAMN BETTER APPRECIATE WHAT ZANGETSU AN' I ARE DOING HERE!"

"Don't be an idiot. Of course he will." The other male chuckled, adding, "The three of us fought and we told him what would happen."

"We tried to stop him though."

Here, Zangetsu's tears fell harder, "We wanted to protect him. Us. But he knows the risks now. Can't you see the stormy sky? Even as it fades…it still wants to cry for him, one last time." And then the white copy manhandled him so he was all Zangetsu could see. He placed a kiss on his forehead as if he were his child before hugging him tight, letting the thinner man bury his head in his shoulder.

"I know. I'm just giving him a friendly reminder."

"He's going to suffer enough without it, you dolt… " Zangetsu reprimanded, his voice a quiet whisper, unlike himself. "I don't want to go." Zangetsu suddenly added, childishly enough. "I'm not ready to go. There are so many things Ichigo will have to face in the future and neither of us will be there."

"His own damn fault." Zangetsu flinched and the hollow grimaced. "Oi, I was jokin'."

"I know. I just worry I never did enough for him…"

"Y'know, you did fine. Did more than was necessary in my opinion. Now it's time to rest." The monochromatic spirit answered, feeling the same as the other —just with a larger amount of anger and I-can't-believe-you're-so-stupid-King. And then Shiro closed his eyes as well, not wanting to see how his world ceased to exist.

.

They were parts of a single soul, but they were still living beings. They didn't want to die. They didn't want to cease to exist, to be lonely. They didn't want neither of them to be lonely either.

But yet, Ichigo needed to do this, needed to defeat Aizen, and if for that, Zangetsu and Shiro needed to give up their existence…

Who were they to say no?

And so, as every cell of Zangetsu screamed in denial, as he kept quiet, saying nothing to the King, he cried for Ichigo, for the hollow and for himself.

And so, the relatively new hollow felt more empty than angry as he held the other close. If one was already crying for the three of them, why should the others cry as well?

"Hey, we'll meet up again, don't be so sad." The hollow lied instead, as the landscape disappeared completely, engulfing them in white.

" **Final Getsuga Tenshou."**

Shirosaki never did know what happened next.

End

 

**Author's Note:**

> First published: 11/07/2014  
> Edited version publish date: 28/07/2018
> 
> I love writing about these three, how they interact and care and protect each other. Zanpakuto spirits in general are very interesting to write about, in general. This was written way before the Quincy nonsense happened so Zangetsu= Ossan, and the hollow is just a hollowified fragment of him.  
> Collection name suggested by: StarrieWolf
> 
> What do you think?  
> Don't forget to drop a comment!


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